Barcodes have been used for many years in commercial settings. Barcodes are printed on many media and represent information in encoded form. Once printed, these barcodes may be scanned using a barcode scanner, which reads the barcode to decode the information encoded therein. The prior art includes many examples of printing machines capable of printing barcodes and many instances of barcode scanners. Furthermore, there are many handheld technologies for scanning and printing barcodes. However, these technologies rely on a particular media, such as stickers or thermal paper.
Barcodes are often used in hospital and doctor's offices to keep track of patient information. These barcodes are created using a computer with a printer. Currently, barcoded stickers are applied by hand to a patient's folders, to every page of identical forms (white copy, pink copy, yellow copy), and to other media such as armbands and lab samples. While preparing a patient's files, technicians may discover a need for more barcodes, for example because additional copies of lab reports were requested. In order to create more barcodes, a user uses an application running on a personal computer. To enter a patient name or ID, an image of the barcode corresponding to that ID is created and that barcode image is sent to a printer. The barcode stickers must then be picked up at the printer. The computers and printers are generally consolidated in a centralized location (e.g., behind a registration desk). However, barcodes may be needed to be placed on objects throughout the hospital in locations far from the computers and printers, such as on charts hanging from doors in hallways, on carts to carry reports to other parts of the hospital, in an examination room, in a lab, etc. Thus, it is very inconvenient to have to go to the computer and printer to create additional barcodes when the additional barcode is needed in a location far away from the printer.